Up to 50,000 greet JFK on election eve in Providence

Saturday

Nov 16, 2013 at 10:18 PM

PROVIDENCE — At a time when the American public holds deep-seated disdain for Washington politics, it is difficult to imagine that a politician could mesmerize anyone.More likely, perhaps, that “the shouting,...

G. Wayne Miller Journal Staff Writer gwaynemiller

PROVIDENCE — At a time when the American public holds deep-seated disdain for Washington politics, it is difficult to imagine that a politician could mesmerize anyone.

More likely, perhaps, that “the shouting, jostling, excited crowd” would characterize the reception for a pop-music celebrity.

But that was The Providence Journal’s description of presidential candidate John F. Kennedy’s appearance in the capital city the morning of Monday, Nov. 7, 1960, the day before the election.

Even before the Massachusetts senator’s arrival in Rhode Island, the excitement had built. The Journal published a map of his motorcade route from what is now T.F. Green Airport. An ad proclaimed: “Come! See! Meet! Senator Kennedy (in person).”

His plane landed at 1:55 a.m. on that Monday. Kennedy was two hours late, but some 2,500 of an initial crowd of 10,000 remained to greet him in the 34-degree night.

After five hours’ sleep at the Biltmore Hotel, Kennedy breakfasted on “cereal, a boiled egg, toast and coffee,” the paper reported. Kennedy met privately with union officials, then walked onto the front steps of City Hall.

The police estimated the crowd in the plaza that is now named for him at 40,000 to 50,000.

“While waiting,” the paper wrote, “many girls were heard exchanging experiences at the Hillsgrove airport, where they apparently had been earlier for the candidate’s arrival. One said, ‘I touched him. I touched him.’”

Democrat Kennedy spoke for 13 minutes, delivering one of his last campaign attacks against Republican candidate Vice President Richard Nixon. Emotion in the plaza ran high.

“Several women were overcome,” The Journal wrote. “It was, on the whole, a youthful crowd and it responded with the screams of delight, the chanting, and the eager responsiveness of the young.”

After shaking hands, the candidate returned by motorcade to the airport, bound for another rally in Manchester, N.H., as he wound his way back to his home state.